Watertown, NY - As Will Barclay's campaign for the state Senate moved into its final days, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's people were busy spinning a story about their opponent. Darrel Aubertine has a "wind problem," they quietly told reporters.

They had dug up old quotes, votes in the state Assembly, maps -- all to prove that Aubertine voted yes on a state law that would allow him to personally profit from windmills on his farm. Chris McKenna, who is on vacation from his $149,000-a-year job as a Bruno aide, said he handed the stuff to a Watertown Times reporter in the newspaper's parking lot Thursday night.

Inside Aubertine's campaign, staff on break from their jobs as aides to Democratic senators were hatching a counterattack. If he wants to talk about conflicts of interest, they reminded reporters, Barclay is taking Empire Zone tax breaks through his Syracuse law firm.

Meanwhile, the candidates posed for television cameras with the locals. Aubertine accepted an endorsement from the sheriff. Barclay thanked the teachers union. All of this happened not in Albany, but in campaign headquarters hastily set up on opposite ends of Watertown's Public Square.

Ted Ford, of LaFargeville, said no one would have noticed if he had set himself on fire in Public Square when he ran for the Assembly 10 years ago. "It was like sleepwalking compared to this," said Ford, who anonymously runs a blog called Danger Democrat.

This time, Bruno and Gov. Eliot Spitzer and their political machines have turned Watertown into a mini-New Hampshire primary. Bruno is engaged in the fight of his life to prevent the Democrats' total control of state government, which is a personal mission of the new governor.

Republican Sen. Jim Wright left the Senate in January, in the middle of his two-year term, to become a consultant for a lobbying firm. Spitzer called for a special election Tuesday. Senate staffers on both sides took breaks from their day jobs and rushed to Watertown, a media center and easy highway exit in a district that covers three counties from Fulton to Ogdensburg.

Sen. Tom Libous, R-Binghamton, is playing a key role in the Barclay campaign. He is regional campaign chairman for the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. Ed Lurie, who makes $180,491 as an aide to Bruno, is camping out at the Best Western Carriage House in Watertown to work on the Barclay campaign.

Cort Ruddy, an aide to Democratic Sen. Dave Valesky of Oneida, is working for Aubertine. Ruddy makes about $75,000 a year in his Senate job. Travis Proulx, a Lewis County native and part-time aide to Sen. Liz Krueger, of Manhattan, has returned to help with the campaign. Aubertine's campaign manager is Cathy Calhoun, a former aide to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Calhoun's salary is paid by the state Democratic Committee, controlled by Spitzer. The Aubertine campaign is also picking up Watertown hotel bills and renting a house in Oswego, campaign finance reports show.

In addition to staff on the ground, the Aubertine campaign has employed Global Strategy Group, Spitzer's New York City political strategists. Aubertine's ads are produced by Jimmy Siegel, who produced the famous Bob Dole Visa commercials.

Barclay is using local firms: Wahl Media of Fairport and Jack Cookfair of Syracuse.

Both sides employ the kind of experienced political operatives who not only know how to sling dirt, but also know how to quickly organize people to make telephone calls and drive people to vote. They can tell war stories, like the time they found glue on the levers at a polling place.

They are paranoid about a newspaper photographer shooting a picture inside campaign offices that could give the other side clues about details as seemingly insignificant as their telephone numbers. When a reporter entered Aubertine's headquarters Thursday, someone yelled, "Reporter in the room." The organizers made sure to leave.

Bruno and Spitzer themselves have not been seen in the district. Spitzer was in Canastota, Syracuse and Auburn last week, but did not skip north.

Instead, Bruno and Spitzer's political machines have raised unheard of amounts of cash in just six weeks. At last count, each party had spent about $1.3 million.

Little money has come from the people who live in the district. Bruno traveled to Florida last week to raise money for this race and others at Donald Trump's mansion, the Albany Times-Union reported.

Albany talking

Voters have had to endure millions of dollars' worth of television ads and mailed fliers that would have them believe Barclay celebrates when local businesses move to China and Aubertine plans to personally drive up the cost of gasoline.

The campaigns have reduced two longtime public servants, fathers and businessmen to 30-second slogans that essentially amount to "Darrel is one of us" and "Will will stand up for you." Or, if the other guy is talking, Aubertine is a puppet of Downstate lawmakers and Barclay is a spoiled prep school kid who charges people to fish in the Salmon River.

The ads use folksy images and voices as both sides try to make their campaigns look grass roots.

The people who live and work in Watertown aren't buying it. They know the ads are Albany talking. And Albany seems to have underestimated the independence and skepticism of people who live in a place that could be cut off from the rest of the United States by a snowstorm like the one Wednesday that closed Interstate 81.

'Who do you believe?'

Paul Nutting just wanted to eat his spinach in peace.

He was having lunch Thursday at his home, Mid-town Towers, public housing just off of Public Square in Watertown. On the television behind him, Channel 7 news reported an update on the race.

"Who do you believe?" Nutting asked. "Do you believe this guy, he's that bad? Or do you believe the other one? I think we should have a choice to make without all the negative talk. Is this what the world is coming to?"

Violet Giakoumis, who sat next to Nutting, is offended that state leaders would waste millions of dollars on ads that don't tell her anything about what the candidates would do about the economy and health care and other serious problems of life in rural Upstate New York.

Five days before the election, Nutting and Giakoumis had not yet decided which candidate they'll support. They are among Watertown's most likely voters because they live in a polling place and snow cannot keep them away on election day.

Normally a red district

They are perhaps among the 22 percent of undecided voters who could make the difference Tuesday.

A Watertown Times poll, the only independent look at the race, put the candidates in a statistical dead heat a week before the election. The poll showed that people who live near Barclay, of Pulaski, favored him. And people who live near Aubertine, of Cape Vincent, liked him.

For all the hype, people said they are likely to vote for the guy they know.

Barclay and Aubertine are both members of the state Assembly. Barclay has already been elected to state office by Oswego County voters. And Aubertine has already been elected by people in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties to represent them in Albany. Each candidate has circulated for many years on chicken barbecue circuits and they have each had a share of state goodies to pass out to hospitals, fire departments and parks.

Of the 171,000 registered voters in the district, 78,454 are Republicans and 46,824 are Democrats, records show.

People in the 48th Senate District are used to voting for Republican incumbents. Even loyal Aubertine supporters did not mind saying they crossed party lines to vote for Wright, in office since 1993.

Before that, John McHugh, now the congressman, held the seat. And before that, candidate Barclay's father, H. Douglas Barclay, represented the district. The senior Barclay was senator from 1965 to 1984. No Democrat has held the seat for at least a century.

Seeing through the ads

Voters interviewed in Watertown last week did not seem concerned about whether Democrats or Republicans take over the Senate. They tend to place equal blame on Spitzer, Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for the problems in Albany.

Ed Krupkin stood among the waterproof boots, wool socks and fluorescent yellow jackets for sale in his Apex Military Supplies store, on Public Square for 49 years. He said he looks for candidates who are honest and realistic. That's been hard to sort that out in this two-month race. There is no time to read a candidate's white paper on the economy, for example. And, on some issues, there are no white papers.

"I don't think Darrel Aubertine is in there trying to raise the price of gas," Krupkin said. "If you start to analyze the details, there's reasons. I'm not sure what they are, but there are reasons."

If North Country residents feel as if Albany sold them a bad deal in this election, they can kick out their new senator at the end of this year.

The winner of Tuesday's special election will have to run again in November. By then, every state Senate seat will be on the ballot and staff for Bruno, Valesky, Krueger and others will have to go home to fight for their bosses' re-elections.